Chaos at Birth: Corbyn’s New Party Splits Before It Even Starts
Corbyn and Sultana’s new party promised hope, but instead delivered rows, legal threats and chaos from day one.
Your Party: Splitting Before It’s Even Begun
It is astonishing really. Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana launched Your Party as a bold new home for Britain’s left. Yet before it even has a name worth keeping, a membership structure that functions, or its first conference, it has already split
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The headlines are not about policy, not about vision, but about a row over who controls the email password and whether nearly a million pounds has just evaporated. A masterclass, if ever there was one, in how not to do politics..!!
The portal that wasn’t
Sultana, ever eager for the limelight, went out on her own and fired off an email promoting a shiny new membership portal. She boasted of 20,000 sign-ups. Do the maths and that is anywhere between £500,000 and £1.1 million. Enough to sound impressive, if it were true, and if the money is safely accounted for.
But it was not. Corbyn and four other MPs, like kindly uncles tidying up after an excitable niece’s blunder, were forced to issue an “urgent” statement declaring the portal unauthorised. They urged supporters to cancel direct debits before more damage was done. Legal advice was sought. The Information Commissioner’s Office was tipped off. In short, the grown-ups had to step in.
Sultana, however, sees it very differently. In a statement she denounced the claims as “false and defamatory”, insisted the portal was properly launched in line with the party’s roadmap, and that members’ data and funds were fully protected. She has even instructed specialist lawyers to pursue those she says are smearing her character.
So the very first act of this “new kind of politics” was to ask people for money, and the second was to tell them to cancel it — with one of its founders threatening legal action against her own colleagues. No wonder the public is confused.
The “boys’ club” defence
Rather than admit error, Sultana played the gender card, branding her colleagues a “sexist boys’ club”. According to her, she was frozen out of accounts and decision-making. Stirring stuff, but unproven, no minutes, no emails, no evidence beyond her word. Meanwhile, her colleagues deny it flatly.
The irony? Sultana’s own Zarah Sultana Campaigns Ltd is a one-woman outfit. She is sole director, controlling shareholder, judge and jury. If Corbyn’s side is a boys’ club, then hers is the purest of girl clubs, population one. Perfectly legal, but hardly a beacon of inclusivity.
Fast-tracked with a sugar daddy?
It is worth remembering that Sultana did not claw her way up from the grassroots as she likes to imply. She was fast-tracked onto Labour’s European list in 2019, then eased into Coventry South the same year after the sitting MP stepped aside. The process was, shall we say, smoothed by the Corbynite machine of the day.
Almost as if she had a political sugar daddy looking out for her. But who on earth could that have been?
Jeremy Corbyn: the gentleman, the sad failure
Jeremy Corbyn’s name inevitably comes up here. Say what you like about his politics, but he is a delightful gentleman, courteous, soft-spoken, unfailingly kind. He remains the man who, in 2017, secured more votes for Labour than Sir Keir Starmer managed in 2024. For a moment he looked like a figure who might rewrite the rules of politics.
And yet he never reached Downing Street. History has already marked him as a sad failure as Labour leader, a man who inspired millions, but could not turn inspiration into power. Now his brave new experiment, building a fresh party outside Labour, is showing the same pattern. Noble in intent, but faltering in execution. That it has unravelled so quickly is not entirely his fault, but the outcome feels grimly familiar. Once again, Corbyn is left with loyal crowds and dashed hopes.
Principles, what principles?
Then there is Sultana’s own record. In 2020, she backed a bill saying MPs who defect from their party should face recall and a by-election. Accountability, democracy, principles, remember those? Fast forward to 2025: she leaves Labour, joins Corbyn’s new project, and clings on to Coventry South. By her own standard she should already be packing her campaign leaflets.
If she stays, it is hypocrisy. If she resigns and fights, fair play, but do not expect her to risk it when polls are already wobbling.
Coventry South: a shaky seat
Those polls matter. Coventry South is no fortress. Current projections: Labour around 25.5 per cent, Reform at 25 per cent, Conservatives close behind on 22 per cent. That is before factoring in the disarray of Your Party. With Corbyn lukewarm or even absent in her corner, Sultana could easily be unseated. Her great experiment may end not in triumph but in defeat to Reform or the Tories.
The verdict
So here we are. Your Party promised to be different. Instead it has delivered public rows over money, accusations without evidence, and a co-founder threatening legal action against her own allies.
Zarah Sultana talks inclusivity, accountability and integrity, yet runs a one-woman company, dodges her own recall standard, and risks losing her seat in a three-way dogfight.
Jeremy Corbyn deserved better than this. A kind, principled man, he wanted to give the left a fresh start. Instead, he finds himself once again presiding over a brave experiment that ends in disappointment. The man remains loved, but the project lies in ruins.
Astonishing really. A brave experiment, wrecked before it even began.